Video: “Words”

posted at 10:41 am on September 12, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

In February 2008, as Barack Obama tried to wrest the nomination from previously-favored Hillary Clinton, his critics said that Hope and Change was nothing but words, with no plan for effective action. In a speech in Wisconsin, Obama gave his “just words?” response:

More than four years later, American Crossroads says yes — those were “just words.” Not only that, but Obama keeps saying the same words over and over again, even though his policies don’t produce the outcomes Obama promises. In this new 60-second spot which Jim Geraghty says is a web-only test for a big campaign push later, the group juxtaposes Obama’s 2008 promises with his acceptance speech six days ago in Charlotte — and asks whether we’re better off:

This isn’t an entirely new approach; the Romney campaign itself has made similar comparisons between Obama speeches to good effect, too. It demonstrates a couple of good points for the election. One, Obama has no new policies to offer. A second term would be just a continuation of his first-term, stagnation-producing economic policies, which have left the Fed with no choice but to weaken the dollar repeatedly in order to encourage even a little short-term investment. Second, it shows what a myth the media has built about Obama’s oratory. That got exposed last week with a laundry-list, State of the Unionesque speech rather than a ringing call to Americans to rally to his side. Obama has been saying the same few things over and over again for more than five years, with little actual accomplishment to show for it.

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“In this new 60-second spot which Jim Geraghty says is a web-only test for a big campaign push later,”

Why is everything always “later” with the Romney campaign? I’m still waiting for that great “shock and awe” ad campaign that would take down Obama. Instead, we got a few meek and mild swing state ads that moved no numbers.

Pat Caddell is right when he said “This is the worst campaign of my lifetime.”

The picture in Drudge was not clear, but the ones in Gateway Pundit were. It appears Ambassador Stevens was still alive when he was captured and carried over the shoulder of the man. Stevens’ left arm was bend at the elbow and directed towards his face. He was tortured and murdered in close quarter. And then you have the picture of his body being dragged on the ground.

Obama’s problem is the lack of relationship of his words to reality. This is especially true today, regarding the Libyan situation. He says stuff, but it doesn’t mean anything. I don’t understand why people are satisfied with that. How can they mistake such nonsense for eloquence. Straw men, platitudes, generalities, and the most high-minded lies you’ll ever hear.

Sadly, this was the only possible result from Obama’s policies and interactions with the middle east. That speech he made back in 2009(?) was all the encouragement they needed for the devolution of civilization in the region.

Jimmy Carter II, on steroids. From the tanking economy to humiliation overseas, Obama is faithfully following the New Democrat template, with some radical foreign policy embellishments from the far Left. As for “walking back” the statement by our Cairo Embassy, that statement is as faithful a declaration of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East as has ever been uttered.

Why didn’t Obama send more security forces to protect the Libyan embassy? He had plenty of time. Maybe cell service is not good on the links.

faraway on September 12, 2012 at 10:50 AM

Because there has been a continuous “stand down” order (don’t shoot, no matter what) from the Administration since Obama took office, in emulation of Mr. Peanut in Iran. Obama arranged with his dear friends in the Libyan radical movement a/k/a the new Libyan government to provide “security” for the consulate. Marines are kept to a ceremonial handful at embassies and consulates. And because basically Obama doesn’t give a shit.

Weren’t we supposed to get a monster, carpet-bombing ad blitz after the convention? What happened to that? It sounds like there were some initial ad buys and then… nothing. It’s like they’ve just gone dark.

Weren’t we supposed to get a monster, carpet-bombing ad blitz after the convention? What happened to that? It sounds like there were some initial ad buys and then… nothing. It’s like they’ve just gone dark.

Doomberg on September 12, 2012 at 10:59 AM

I do live in a very red part of florida; so it’s possible I just don’t get many romney ads, but I do get tons of obama ads on TV. I saw some for Romney this weekend but none since.

Romney/Ryan are running like they know they have it won and are just trying to run out the clock, or they know they are toast (as the “Ohio is lost” tweet today from Jim Pethokoukis might show) and just are trying to get this over with by putting in as little effort in as possible.

The one thing they are not doing is campaigning like this is a close race.

They report to the ambassador and based on the cowardly response from the embassy I can guaratee you they were told to stand down………and watch radical islamists invade sovereign US territory, burn the American flag, and erect a black AQ flag. Insane.

With a Pro-American president this ambassador would be on the next plane out of Cairo with his termination papers followed by an order to the Marines in the embassy, from the President himself, saying to fire on any attempts to illegally enter the compound.

This is not the America I know. I am past enraged, I am utterly speechless.

Weren’t we supposed to get a monster, carpet-bombing ad blitz after the convention? What happened to that? It sounds like there were some initial ad buys and then… nothing. It’s like they’ve just gone dark.

Doomberg on September 12, 2012 at 10:59 AM

Looks like the Romney people expended all their bile on Sarah Palin, and all their energy on destroying Newt Gingrich. Now that they’ve destroyed the real enemy (conservatives) they’re just reverting to type and are going to cruise to a gentlemanly, moderate victory. This guy is so far shaping up to be Thomas E. Dewey II — the surefire winner of the 1948 campaign against Truman, and who sat back confident of victory.

I’ll be voting for Paul Ryan in this election, just as I voted for Sarah Palin in the last.

Its worse than ‘no new policies left to offer’. Obama is going to allow those who are directly responsible for the murder of our Ambassador and his aides remain unpunished and in power in Libya and he will not seek to punish those in Egypt at all.

Obama will make a great show of sending in the FBI and demanding that the FBI, in coordination with our military personnel, be allowed to conduct an investigation and pursue those who actually committed the murder with their own hands.

He will not hold those in the Libyan government responsible for A CLEAR ACT OF WAR AGAINST THIS NATION.

WHY?

Because he is at a delicate point in his bid for reelection. Because the government in Libya is considered by his administration to be a ‘friendly’ government.

He will ignore an open act of war. He will ignore the fact that these attacks were coordinated to occur on the anniversary of 9/11, which also coincides with a critical point in our electoral process. In my opinion, this was clearly calculated to be certain that Obama would be reluctant to act in a decisive manner and declare these attacks an open act of war against this nation, and, rather, treat them as two separate and unrelated incidents, one of which resulted in the murder of American citizens.

Obama will hope that posturing and pounding the table, insisting that the U.S. will carry our ‘full investigations and bring the perpetrators to justice’ will be sufficient to allow for his reelction.

This policy makes the U.S. appear weak. When the British Ambassador was attacked in Iraq, Britain immediately withdrew all of their embassy personnel, and ordered all Iraq’s personnel out of Britain immediately. The British government severed all ties with Iraq.

Obama will most certainly not take such decisive action against Libya.

Obama, has refused to meet with our best and strongest ally in the region, Israel, as requested by Prime Minister Netanyahu, at the end of this month. Obama insists that he has no time for such a meeting, and that his ‘schedule is full’. He does have time to appear on David Letterman’s television show, however.

Not only is he out of ideas, he is failing as a leader at a critical juncture. He is the epitome of THE EMPTY CHAIR when the United States of America and the world needs courageous and insightful leadership.

We are seeing some of them in Las Vegas, at least during all the NFL games I watch, though not near as many as I’d like to see. Romney’s ads are outnumbering SCOAMF’s ads somewhat.

We all know Romney’s a smart business mind – and smart businessmen don’t blow advertising dollars on “scattershot” marketing. That’s a deadly sin in business and I’m glad I don’t see him doing that. Here’s my humble contribution to the effort, so far. We are still 7 weeks out from the election, and timing is everything.

Current events maywill change everything, and whatever they’ve already filmed and have ready to go to air could become virtually irrelevant in a flash. Every day is another disaster for Obama on some front, and marshaling resources is Romney’s specialty. I’m not panicking. Yet.

I think Romney is doing just fine and contrasted leadership quite nicely with president “present” as Obama just walked away without taking any questions. By the way, Romney is now up in Rasmussen. The more we see the lack of leadership that Woodward writes about in his new book, the more we see the mistake that was made 4 years ago.

I’m still waiting for that great “shock and awe” ad campaign that would take down Obama.

gumbyandpokey on September 12, 2012 at 10:47 AM

OF@ckhead** is doing the “shock and awe” on himself every single day. Romney just needs to get the wretched media to report it.

**: I wish I could write the whole word out to describe this sorry excuse for a president. I used to call him OButthead, but his actions before and after the embassy killings just pushed me over the edge. I have only the greatest contempt for him. He has demonstrated that he is a clear danger to the safety of Americans all over the world, and an impediment to World peace. He must be thrown out of office, tried and put in prison.

People, calm down about the supposed lack of a “shock and awe” Romney campaign blitz. The Dems wrapped up the convention just 6 days ago. Yesterday was September 11. We have 55 days to go. There are presidential and vice-presidential debates forthcoming.

Don’t get your panties in a wad. Obama is sinking his own ship. Romney’s going to direct people’s attention to that.

Romney chose to respect yesterday, the 11th anniversary of a declaration of war against our nation, by not aggressively campaigning, including going dark on tv ads. He kept the tv ads off today due to the gravity of the embassy attacks. While he did openly criticize the President’s pale, lackluster commentary about those attacks, the criticism was well warranted.

I’m no Romney fan, not by a large margin, it’s ABO that earns my passion, absent a better candidate. But I believe he plans on winning this election, and he has the money. The ads will come, and there is a great amount of time left.